State Sens. Dean Skelos, R-Rockville Centre, left, and Malcolm Smith, D-Queens, shown in 2009, are part of the coalition that is to share leadership of the state Senate.

The leadership-sharing pact struck last week by state Senate Republicans and five breakaway Democrats is a good deal for those factions. But exactly how it will serve the people of New York is a troubling and, at this point, unanswerable question.

The partnership is as unprecedented as it was unnecessary. Despite their gerrymandering and creating a supposedly safe 63rd seat, Senate Republicans appear to have failed to hold onto the majority they have enjoyed for 44 of the past 46 years. Normally, that would mean Democratic control.

But Republicans eagerly partnered with the four-member Independent Democratic Caucus - since joined by former Majority Leader Malcolm Smith - to secure their power. IDC members, for their part, will enjoy outsized influence.

How all this sharing - the two sides will swap temporary Senate "presidents" every two weeks - will make for effective governing is difficult to envision. Even run-of-the-mill decisions like dividing resources between majority and minority members are being complicated.

This experiment in lawmaking is especially unfortunate given that the Legislature, under the leadership of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, had only recently begun to shed its reputation for dysfunction. A backslide into the chaos and confusion of the Democratic-led 2009-10 session, which included a month-long coup, is unacceptable.

Lawmakers from Cuomo to newly elected Democratic state Sen. Ted O'Brien of Monroe County are taking a wait-and-see attitude. O'Brien, noting IDC members' agenda aligns more closely with that of their fellow Democrats, scratches his head at the situation.

He's not alone.

Legislators return to Albany next month to debate issues ranging from campaign reform to a minimum wage increase; from a new state budget to mandate relief. That the Senate will address such issues via merry-go-'round leadership is not encouraging.

Coalition leaders must prove they can be as attentive to the needs of state taxpayers as they are to their own.